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Genesis 1 & 2 A Healthy Self-Understanding

Genesis 1 & 2A Healthy
Self-UnderstandingWC
McCarter

Overview

This week we have read The
Story of “The Beginning of Life as We Know It.” To be exact, we read
portions of Scripture from Genesis chapters 1-4 and 6-9. In this first chapter,
we have read the creation event and incidents shortly thereafter. First, we
were given a bird’s-eye-view of creation. Second, we were told in more specific
detail how God created man and placed him in a garden. Then, we were told how
the tempter helped to cause the man and woman to fall from the grace and glory
of a perfect relationship with the Creator. Fourthly, we read how sin began to
devastate the creation from very early on. The first siblings are marred by
sin. Cain murdered Abel. Lastly, God is righteous in destroying mankind for
their sin, but is merciful to Noah.

Introduction

At some point this week, maybe on the video we watched
Wednesday, I heard someone say how awesome it would have been to have a front
row ticket to see the Creation event in the beginning. That would have been a
majestic occasion! Can you imagine hearing God speak and then things beginning
to appear? Can you visualize the beauty of the Garden of Eden? Can you see in
your mind’s eye the hand of God scooping up dust of the ground and forming
Adam? Are you able to see Adam cracking the mold as God breathed life into him?
He began to live and move and have his being when God whispered. What an
amazing thing. Today, I would like for us to look at a couple verses in Genesis
1 and 2 in order to develop a healthy and balanced understanding of ourselves.

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Scripture Reading-
This is the Word of God

Genesis 1:26-27 (pages 2-3)

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our
likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the
sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures
that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the
image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:7 (page 3)

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living
being.

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We have form because God gave us form.

We are fragile and only made of dust.

The word
for ground and man sound alike.

Abraham
confessed his utter inferiority in comparison to the Lord God in Genesis 18:27:
“Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold
as to speak to the Lord, though
I am nothing but dust and ashes. . . .”

Maybe you
remember what God told Adam after he had sinned in the Garden. He said, “. . .for dust you areand to dust
you will return.”

We are flimsy, yet important.We are dust, yet significant.We are nothing, yet something.

We must
develop a realistic view of ourselves.Our self-esteem must be balanced.

The Bible
does not demean mankind in anyway in this passage, yet we can attain a balanced
view of ourselves from this
text.

We have life because God breathed life into us.

We live because God wants us to live.

He has
given us life, breath, and all things.

In Him we
live and move and have our being.

Conclusion-
Finding Your Story in God's Story

You are created in God’s image, but you are marred by
sin. Like Adam, Eve, Cain, and so many others, you are not what you were
created to be. You have fallen short of the glory of God. You are under sin and
are controlled by it apart from Christ. The Good News is you can be renewed in
Christ. You can be re-created, as it were.